The Suite from Concerto for Orchestra by Joan Tower is a new version of a colorful and major work from her catalog, the Concerto for Orchestra. Peter Oundjian will lead the Yale Philharmonia in the piece’s world premiere at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 27, 2025.
Oundjian led the 2021 world premiere of her concerto A New Day with cellist Alisa Weilerstein at the Colorado Music Festival and has conducted the Concerto for Orchestra several times. The festival has announced that he will lead the world premiere of Tower’s saxophone concerto Love Returns on July 10-11 with the expressive soloist Steven Banks. This work is commissioned by the Colorado Music Festival, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Oundjian proposed a return to Tower’s Concerto for Orchestra (more than three decades after its commission by the Saint Louis Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic) as a suite, shortening the half-hour original while preserving its virtuoso interplay among players, its contrasts, and, as she described the 1991 work, “a feeling of ascent.” Tower observed, “It took a lot of courage for Peter to distill my Concerto for Orchestra into a suite. I think he actually pulled it off — and I am totally in awe of how he did it.”
Earlier this month, A New Day enjoyed its European premiere. Cellist Alban Gerhardt and the Munich Philharmonic led by Patrick Hahn presented it on January 11-12. The audience responded with an enthusiastic ten-minute ovation.
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